North Point Village
North Point Village is an abandoned pre-war housing project on the northern edge of the Detroit Wasteland. Having been abandoned as incomplete before the war, it has largely remained unoccupied since then. However, it also sees use as a waystation for groups travelling to and from the ruined city. History Pre-War North Point Village began as a housing project, aimed at creating cheap and affordable housing for the people of Detroit, and to support the city’s manufacturing and other heavy industries. Even though much of the city’s populace was poor, the need for workers, especially in those industries that supported the war effort, remained critical. Despite the resource shortages of the last decade before the war, more and more people came to the city looking for work. In turn, many of them were scooped up by various companies who pressed them into service to fill jobs and allow them to rake in the profits. Development of North Point began in 2072. The plan called for affordable housing, that would be made possible through the use of cheap, factory-built homes that would be built on-site from prefabricated components. Several companies came on board with the project, looking to expand their workforces to meet greater demand. The project was backed by the city, with Mayor Jackson Jones signing off on it himself. While there was great initial optimism for the project, it quickly stalled. Construction of the basic utilities such as roads, power and water took far longer then expected, leading to cost over-runs before the first house was even built. Not that getting the first kit home up helped progress any at all, however. It quickly became clear that the houses themselves were poorly designed, with the manufacturers cutting corners and using substandard materials. The first allegedly finished houses instead needed even more work to make them habitable. Construction was halted midway through 2077 when it was discovered that the Mayor’s office had been pocketing money intended for the project. A report by the Detroit Free Press revealed that the corruption went even deeper, with every party involved in essence stealing from the city to line their own pockets, while cutting corners at every opportunity. By that stage, interest in the project had waned, with very few of the houses actually sold. Even then, the buyers often found unexpected problems that left their new homes allmost worthless. The Great War and afterwards Located on the outskirts of Detroit, North Point Village was spared the worst of the immediate carnage of the war. The Village’s few residents saw what was coming as the city descended into chaos, with a number of them choosing to barricade themselves into their homes using materials take from the incomplete houses to do such. This proved to be a temporary respite at best, as fallout, radiation storms and nuclear winter proved to be far more lethal to North Point Village then the mobs. Before the end of 2077, the village was completely abandoned, its populace having either died or fled. What remained of the village was left to quietly decay for the next few decades, all but forgotten as the daily struggle to survive took priority. While the village was occasionally used as a stopover for transients and drifters exploring the outskirts of the Detroit ruins, it never gained a permanent population as the city itself was generally seen as being too dangerous for travellers. That would change with the particularity harsh winters of the late 2120s and early 2130s which drove people back towards the city as they sought shelter. North Point fond a new life for the next two decades as a stopover point for those travelling to the Detroit Wasteland. Those coming from farming or scavenger communities elsewhere in Michigan, or fleeing the growing violence in the Flint River, would stay there and rest before heading in to the city proper. While it never had any true permanent population, there were those who would stay at North Point for extended periods to provide food and shelter to travellers. As the new communities of the Detroit Wasteland, such as Grand Central, Park Lane and Chryslus Castle grew and stabilised, the need for North Point declined. At the same time, immigration tapered off as the weather warmed, with less people seeking out new lives and new opportunities in the city. By 2160, North Point was once again completely abandoned, and would largely remain that way for over a century to come. Repurposing For the next hundred and twenty years, North Point Village would stand largely derelict and remain only sporadically inhabited. Save for a short-lived commune in the 2230s, it would largely only be a home for transients and drifters. Feral Ghouls came to frequent the place, preying on the unwary who sought shelter there. The rise of the Army of Revolution, and their control of the northern reaches of Detroit, made travel through the region undesirable, further reducing traffic. The rise of the Foundry in 2279 would, if inadvertently, lend a new purpose to North Point. Scouts sent by the Foundry to explore the Detroit Wasteland discovered it, and, after clearing out the ferals infesting it, used it as a base camp for future exploration of the city. Its location lead them to discover the Army of Revolution before making contact with any of the other major factions within the city, which in turn lead to the alliance between the two groups. Seeing its value as a stopover for traders travelling between the Foundry and the Revolutionaries’ territories, the Army of Revolution set up a permanent garrison on-site. They knew that the weapons that the Foundry built would be vital to their plans of conquering the Detroit Wasteland, and moved to protect that supply. Fortifying some of the remaining houses, the Revolutionaries turned North Point into an armed camp. Even though they did not expect any interference from the various settlements in the Wasteland, the threat of disruption to trade from Raiders or wild animals was considered real enough to justify its existence. Their planning plaid off; save for the disruptions caused by the Flint River War, trade between the two groups continued unabated until the start of 2287. Civil War The virus outbreak in the Foundry at the start of 2287 served to slow trade between the two groups, a fact not helped by Martin Kruger’s decision to effectively blackmail the Foundry into submission. Tensions within North Point ran high as relations between the Army of Revolution garrison and the Foundry’s traders declined. And yet, the leaders of the two groups continued to push at each other, seeing how far the other would go to maintain their alliance. The Foundry’s effective breaking off of relationships with the Army did little to help the situation, even if it removed the traders from the equation. Instead, the Army began to send more troops and supplies to North Point, seeing it as a possible bulwark against any aggressive moves by the Foundry. While few actually believed that such a conflict was likely, the Revolutionaries’ were preparing for a major millitary campaign and did not want to risk any interference, no matter how remote a possibility it was. North Point did eventually come under attack, but from a very unexpected source. The death of Scrap Iron City commander Gerald Bunsen in July triggered a schism within the Army of Revolution as it split between loyalist supporters of Martin Kruger and rebels who declared allegiance to former commander Olivia Milton, who was now serving as the Army’s ambassador to the Foundry. The pro-Milton faction saw her as the Army’s rightful leader, and moved to secure a route to allow them to funnel their supporters towards the Foundry. Rebel troops marched on North Point, attacking the loyalist garrison and quickly subduing it. Within days, North Point’s population swelled with deserters who had rallied in support of Milton and were converging on the outpost. Recognising the extent of the situation, and also seeing an opportunity to further their own aims, the Forgemaster sent a force to help protect North Point and secure a route between the Foundry and the Detroit Wasteland. Description As planned, North Point Village would have consisted of neatly organised streets of near identical, two-story houses. Assembled on site from factory-built components, the theory was that North Point would provide cheap and affordable housing. However, corruption and graft served to undercut the project, with many of the houses being substandard and suffering numerous flaws. Construction was halted before the project was complete, leaving a number of the houses half finished. Many more were never even started, and instead consist of bare concrete foundations or even simply vacant lots. As the village has passed through various hands and periods of abandonment, a number of the buildings have been completely gutted, scrapped for materials or simply burned down. Today much of the village is completely abandoned, with the inhabited proportion concentrated on a single block. Those buildings that remain have been fortified, usually using materials taken from other houses in the estate. They have been outfitted as crude living quarters for both the small standing garrison and for traders stopping over. Inhabitants For most of its post-war history, North Point Village was either uninhabited, or a home for passing wasteland creatures. Feral Ghouls were known to inhabit the area, and often used the buildings to shelter. The transients and drifters that would occasionally take refuge there were often unaware of the hazards, and frequently fell victim to ghoul attacks. Due to the village’s remote location on the fringes of the Detroit Wasteland, there was very little interest or need to clear it out, which allowed the ghouls to remain for extended periods. After the creation of the trade alliance between the Army of Revolution and the Foundry, the Revolutionaries sent a task force to clear the site and secure it. Until the schism within the Army in mid-2287, the site remained firmly in their control. Following the split, it was seized by pro-Milton rebels who used the site to help funnel their people towards the Foundry. The Forgemaster also sent a small force of their soldiers to help protect the site. Besides providing additional manpower, these soldiers serve as shields against any possible moves by the loyalist faction to take back North Point; any attack against them would serve only to fully sever the relationship between the loyalists and the Foundry. Category:Places Category:Michigan